Explore the political dynamics of the last century's pivotal decade
My memoir is a personal journal about building community and a political movement in the 1970s
My Goal
To learn from the transformative trends of the 1970s that I explore in my memoir, and that shaped our politics today.
About the Book and the Political 70s
I wrote Staking Our Claim:The Fight for Better Housing in the 1970s in the hopes of capturing the experience of a group of close friends determined to build a grassroots movement but I also tried to shine a light on the political, economic and cultural trends taking root. The course of U.S. society was up for grabs. Would the society of peace, harmony and equality envisioned by plenty of us in the 60s take root or would a different vision take hold. Today we know the answer. But back then the future was up for grabs. That’s what I believed.
Here’s what I wrote for the back cover of my book, hoping to entice readers:
In the 1970s’ world of urban decline, a young man seeks a life of authenticity through collective action and the strength of community. Staking Our Claim chronicles Patrick Morrissy's journey as he reclaims a worn Victorian house in East Orange, NJ, that becomes a headquarters for the tenant movement. He teams up with a group of passionate organizers who build grassroots organizations that do battle to hold down rents and get landlords to maintain apartment buildings.
Morrissy and his compatriots are from that strain of the New Left that worked to unite the poor and working class in the fight for economic justice. Fueled by the Civil Rights Movement and a desire for social justice, they battled rising rents, slumlords, and government policies that devastated urban neighborhoods. They launched Shelterforce, a national publication for housing activists, and fought for tenant rights, striving to create a society where no one is left behind.
This memoir is about the search for meaning, the power of grassroots movements, and the enduring value of community in the face of economic hardship and political retrenchment.
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The Political 70s
From the pages of: Staking Our Claim
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